By 2018 Google's DeepMind was not using chess or Go to benchmark its most advanced AI against human professionals. It was using a 1998 real-time strategy game about space marines. This episode explains why StarCraft, built on a modified fantasy engine, became robust enough for Monte Carlo analysis and machine learning, and how a story of personal betrayal held an audience across a 17-year release gap.

We break down Chris Metzen and James Phinney's four-species universe, Arcturus Mengsk abandoning Sarah Kerrigan to the Zerg on Tarsonis, and the Brood War setup that waited 12 years for Wings of Liberty, Heart of the Swarm, and Legacy of the Void. We cover Blizzard's cinematics department, a 78-piece San Francisco Symphony session paired with Woodstock blues for the Terrans, 4.5 million copies sold in South Korea and three television channels  ...